REUTILIZATION AND CONDITIONING OF SPENT SEALED SOURCES FROM NUCLEAR GAUGES

The increase in use of nuclear gauges in Brazil has resulted in a corresponding increase in the volume of radioactive waste, that must be stored and conditioned for disposal. After being taken out of service, the spent sources are classified as waste and sent to research institutes that are part of the National Commission of Nuclear Energy - CNEN, which are responsible for receiving, storing and conditioning such waste for disposal. CNEN has been intensifying efforts to collect such spent nuclear gauges from the users; in order to minimize the possibility of accidents. As a result of these efforts, a large number of sources are stored at the CNEN institutes. The management goal for these sources is minimize the waste that must be stored and disposed, through reutilization or a more efficient method of disposal conditioning. The guideline being used is reutilize those sources in which the radioactive material exists as special form radioactive material and that do not exhibit leakage. Nuclear gauges whose sources do not meet these requirements will be dismantled and the sources efficiently conditioned. To dismantle the devices a hot -cell is being implemented at the Centro de Desenvolvimen to da Tecnologia Nuclear CDTN. The hot-cell will allow dismantling of 60 Co nuclear gauges with activities up to 7,4 GBq (200 mCi) and 137 Cs up to 740 GBq (20 Ci).